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Scott Joplin (film)
''Scott Joplin'' is a 1977 biographical film directed by Jeremy Kagan and based on the life of African-American composer and pianist Scott Joplin. It stars Billy Dee Williams and Clifton Davis. Its script won an award from the Writers Guild of America in 1979. The only other composers mentioned as worthy equals in the film are John Philip Sousa and Jelly Roll Morton. Eubie Blake makes an appearance in the movie. Plot In the late 19th century, Scott Joplin, a young African-American musician, moves to Missouri and to make ends meet finds a job as a piano teacher. He befriends Louis Chauvin, who plays the piano in a brothel. Joplin composes ragtime music. One day his "Maple Leaf Rag" is heard by John Stark, a publisher of sheet music in St. Louis, Missouri. Stark is impressed, buys the rights to the composition and sells it, with Joplin sharing some of the profits. Joplin's new songs also achieve a great popularity. Chauvin is equally talented, but contracts syphilis and dies in his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeremy Kagan
Jeremy Paul Kagan (born December 14, 1945) is an American Film director, film and television director, screenwriter, and television producer. Early life Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Kagan received his Bachelor of Arts, B.A. from Harvard University in 1967. He went on to attend the newly formed Tisch School of the Arts, New York University Graduate Institute of Film & Television and was in the first class at the AFI Conservatory. Film and television career Kagan's feature film credits include the box-office hit ''Heroes (1977 film), Heroes'' (1977), ''The Big Fix (1978 film), The Big Fix'' (1978), a political comedy-thriller starring Richard Dreyfuss; ''The Chosen (1981 film), The Chosen'' (1981), from The Chosen (Potok novel), the classic book of the same name by Chaim Potok; ''The Journey of Natty Gann'' (1985), the first American movie ever to win the Gold Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival; the underground comedy ''Big Man on Campus'' (1989); the cult classic f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a genre rooted in improvisation could retain its essential characteristics when notated. His composition "Jelly Roll Blues", published in 1915, was one of the first published jazz compositions. He also claimed to have invented the genre. Morton also wrote "King Porter Stomp", "Wolverine Blues", "Black Bottom Stomp", and "I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say", the last being a tribute to New Orleans musicians from the turn of the 20th century. Morton's claim to have invented jazz in 1902 was criticized. Music critic Scott Yanow wrote, "Jelly Roll Morton did himself a lot of harm posthumously by exaggerating his worth...Morton's accomplishments as an early innovator are so vast that he did not really need to stretch the truth." Gunther Schuller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. (born May 17, 1942), better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments,Evans, et al., xii. often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.Komara, 951. Early life Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, New York City. Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was raised in a musical environment: his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father, Henry Saint Claire Fredericks Sr., was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and piano player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DeWayne Jessie
DeWayne Jessie (a.k.a. "Otis Day"; born September 21, 1951) is an American character actor best known for his portrayal of Otis Day in ''National Lampoon's Animal House''. In the movie, the songs "Shama Lama Ding Dong" and " Shout" were sung by Lloyd G. Williams and lip-synched by Jessie. In the 1980s, Jessie purchased the rights to the band name Otis Day and The Knights from Universal Studios and formed a real-life version of the band with some members of his family and toured the country for years afterward, with Jessie assuming the identity of Otis Day. The group released a concert video, ''Otis My Man'', in 1987 and recorded an album, produced by George Clinton, that came out in 1989 titled ''Shout'' which flopped. It included updated versions of "Shout" and "Shama Lama Ding Dong" sung by Jessie. Jessie and the rest of the band members were initiated as honorary members of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at the University of Central Oklahoma in 1985. He lives with three of his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seymour Cassel
Seymour Joseph Cassel (January 22, 1935 – April 7, 2019) was an American actor who appeared in over 200 movies and television shows, and had a career that spanned over 50 years. Cassel first came to prominence in the 1960s in the pioneering independent films of writer/director John Cassavetes. The first of these was ''Too Late Blues'' (1961), followed by ''Faces (1968 film), Faces'' (1968), for which he was nominated for an Academy Awards, Academy Award and won a National Society of Film Critics, National Society of Film Critics Award. Cassel went on to appear in Cassavetes' ''Minnie and Moskowitz'' (1971), ''The Killing of a Chinese Bookie'' (1976), ''Opening Night (1977 film), Opening Night'' (1977), and ''Love Streams (film), Love Streams'' (1984). He also appeared in other notable films, including: ''Coogan's Bluff (film), Coogan's Bluff'' (1968), ''The Last Tycoon (1976 film), The Last Tycoon'' (1976), ''Valentino (1977 film), Valentino'' (1977), ''Convoy (1978 film), Convo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stillwell Stark
John Stillwell Stark (April 11, 1841October 21, 1927) was an American publisher of ragtime music, best known for publishing and promoting the music of Scott Joplin. Early life and education Stark was the eleventh of 12 children born to Adin Stark and Eleanor Stillwell Stark of Shelby County, Kentucky. He grew up on a farm in Bean Blossom, Indiana, and served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, where he played the bugle. He married Sarah Ann Casey and raised a family, earning his living as a farmer, first in Indiana and then in Missouri near Maysville. His children were E.J. Stark, who became a well-known composer of ragtime, and Eleanor, who was a talented musician. Eventually John Stark tired of farming and moved to Cameron, where he went into the new business of ice-cream making. After moving to Chillicothe, he supplemented his income by selling organs and pianos. Career In 1885, Stark settled in Sedalia, Missouri and entered the music business full-time, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Carney
Arthur William Matthew Carney (November 4, 1918 – November 9, 2003) was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best known for his role as Ed Norton on the sitcom ''The Honeymooners'' (1955–1956). His film roles include ''Harry and Tonto'' (1974), ''The Late Show (film), The Late Show'' (1977), ''House Calls (1978 film), House Calls'' (1978), ''Going in Style'' (1979) ''Firestarter (1984 film), Firestarter'', ''The Muppets Take Manhattan'' (both 1984), and ''Last Action Hero'' (1993). Early life Carney, the youngest of six sons (his brothers were Jack, Ned, Robert, Fred, and Phil), was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Helen (née Farrell) and Edward Michael Carney, a newspaperman and publicist. His family was Irish American and Catholic. He attended Mount Vernon High School (New York), A.B. Davis High School. Carney was drafted into the United States Army in 1943 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Turpin
Thomas Million John Turpin (November 18, 1871 – August 13, 1922) was an African American composer of ragtime music. Tom Turpin was born in Savannah, Georgia, a son of John L. Turpin and Lulu Waters Turpin. In his early twenties he opened a saloon in St. Louis, Missouri which became a meeting-place for local pianists and an incubation point for early folk ragtime, such as musician Joe Jordan. Turpin himself is credited with the first published rag by an African-American, his "Harlem Rag" of 1897 (it was composed by 1892, a year before ragtime's introduction to the world at the 1893 Worlds Fair). His other published rags include "Bowery Buck," "Ragtime Nightmare," "St. Louis Rag," and "The Buffalo Rag". Turpin was a large man, six feet (1.83 m) tall and 300 pounds (136 kg); his piano had to be raised on blocks so that he could play it standing up, otherwise his stomach would get in the way. In addition to his saloon-keeping duties and his ragtime composition, he contr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godfrey Cambridge
Godfrey MacArthur Cambridge (February 26, 1933 – November 29, 1976) was an American stand-up comic and actor. Alongside Bill Cosby, Dick Gregory, and Nipsey Russell, he was acclaimed by ''Time'' in 1965 as "one of the country's foremost celebrated Negro comedians." Early life Cambridge was born in New York City on February 26, 1933, to Alexander and Sarah Cambridge, who were immigrants from British Guiana. His parents, dissatisfied with the New York Public School System, sent him to live with his grandparents in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, during his primary school years. When he was 13, Cambridge moved back to New York and attended Flushing High School in Flushing, Queens. In 1949, Cambridge studied medicine at Hofstra College, which he attended for three years before dropping out to pursue a career in acting. Stage and screen career While pursuing an acting career, Cambridge supported himself with a variety of jobs, including "cab driver, bead-sorter, ambulance driver, ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Avery
Margaret Avery (born April 15, 1944) is an American actress and singer. She began her career appearing on stage and later had starring roles in films including '' Cool Breeze'' (1972), ''Which Way Is Up?'' (1977), ''Scott Joplin'' (1977), and ''The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh'' (1979). Avery is best known for her performance as Shug Avery in the 1985 period drama film ''The Color Purple'' for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She continued appearing in films including ''Blueberry Hill'' (1988), ''White Man's Burden'' (1995), ''Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins'' (2008), '' Meet the Browns'' (2008), and ''Proud Mary'' (2018). From 2013 to 2019, Avery starred as Helen Patterson, lead character's mother, in the BET drama series ''Being Mary Jane''. Early life Margaret Avery was born in Mangum, Oklahoma and raised in San Diego, California, where she attended Point Loma High School. She then attended San Francisco State University where, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Chauvin
Louis Chauvin (March 13, 1881March 26, 1908) was an American ragtime pianist and composer. Early life and education Born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a Mexican Spanish-Indian father and an African-American mother, he widely was considered the finest pianist in the St. Louis area at the turn of the century. He was part of the ragtime community that met at Tom Turpin's Rosebud bar with Joe Jordan and others. Career Chauvin left only three published compositions and died without having recorded, so his ability is hard to judge today. However, he was long remembered by his peers as an exceptionally gifted performer and composer. He primarily is remembered today for " Heliotrope Bouquet", the rag in which he shares compositional credit with Scott Joplin. The nature of the music seems to indicate that Chauvin provided the basis for the first two strains, and Joplin wrote the last two and edited the work into a cohesive piece due to the debilitating effects of Chauvin's illness. His publi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary). The primary stage classically presents with a single chancre (a firm, painless, non-itchy skin ulceration usually between 1 cm and 2 cm in diameter) though there may be multiple sores. In secondary syphilis, a diffuse rash occurs, which frequently involves the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. There may also be sores in the mouth or vagina. In latent syphilis, which can last for years, there are few or no symptoms. In tertiary syphilis, there are gummas (soft, non-cancerous growths), neurological problems, or heart symptoms. Syphilis has been known as "the great imitator" as it may cause symptoms similar to many other diseases. Syphilis is most commonly spread through sexual activity. It may also be transmi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
